Chinese tech giants NetEase have announced they’ve fully acquired Detroit: Become Human and Heavy Rain developers Quantic Dream, following a smaller investment in the company in 2019. Quantic Dream’s co-CEOs David Cage and Guillaime de Fondaumière will remain in place, and the studio will continue to function independently from NetEase. The cost of the deal hasn’t been disclosed.
]]>Trading years of PlayStation exclusivity for a PC debut locked on the Epic Games Store, three Quantic Dreams games finally found their way over to Steam. Detroit: Become Human, Beyond: Two Souls and Heavy Rain hit Valve's platform today - a trio of strange cinematic story-games about serial killers, Ellen Page's invisible friend, and a robot emancipation movement that certainly holds no real-world analogue.
]]>Quantic Dream's trio of old PlayStation exclusives are being plonked in front of a new set of PC players next month, as Heavy Rain, Detroit: Become Human and Beyond: Two Souls are arriving on Steam on June 18th. They first launched on PC last year via the Epic Games Store, and it's not long now before they're freed of their exclusivity shackles. So, which will you try first? The murder mystery about finding your stolen kid? The android simulator that makes you decide if robots should be free? Or will you become a young girl trying to figure out what's up with her weird friend? You decide!
]]>Long-time Sony mainstay Quantic Dream have gone fully independent. Thanks to the baffling success of Detroit: Become Human, last year's PC rereleases of their back catalogue, and a handy bit of investment from NetEase, the French devs will self-publish their own games for the first time in their 23-year history. That probably also means that whatever high-budget, self-important, definitely-not-allegorical tale is brewing behind those locked Parisian doors will likely no longer be confined to PlayStation alone. Pity.
]]>The year is 2019 and I have never played a David Cage game. Sure, I said, I can review Beyond: Two Souls. It will be a good opportunity to see what all the fuss is about, both negative and positive. I’ll keep an open mind.
That open mind, like all best-laid plans, did not survive contact.
]]>Quantic Dream's line of PlayStation-exclusive story 'em ups continue to trickle onto PC, with 2013's Beyond: Two Souls arriving today. This is the one where Ellen Page is pals with a spooky ghost and Willem Dafoe plays his usual creepo weirdman. This is a rare game where Quantic Dream realise that the 'muffed this one right up' outcomes of their quick-time events are far more entertaining than doing it right, and your mischievous ghostmate is always keen to do the worst thing in every scenario, should you want him to. The game quietly urges you to smash everything and ruin every social engagement, so go for it.
]]>Following the PC debut of Heavy Rain earlier this week, developers Quantic Dream are now offering a demo slice of their next former-PlayStation-exclusive, Beyond: Two Souls. This is the one where Ellen Page plays a teenager with a spooky ghostpal that gets her into all sorts of scrapes, not to mention a wacky government programme overseen by the Green Goblin himself, Willem Dafoe. The one where, after the relatively magic-free Heavy Rain, Quantic Dream went all-in on spirits and demons and Native Americans because of course Native Americans have to be involved thanks David Cage oh god the writing remains awful. But it is fun to wreck a teen's birthday party as an angsty dickhead.
]]>You all called me paranoid, said David Cage wouldn't dare, insisted it would never happen, that the "threat" I spoke of was a joke, but it's true: Quantic Dream are bringing more games to PC, starting with 2010's Heavy Rain, 2013's Beyond: Two Souls and 2018's Detroit: Become Human. After years of PlayStation exclusivity, the Indigo Prophecy studio been lured back by Epic Games Store exclusivity. Yup, Quantic's three most recent games are coming to PC this year but only on Epic's scloosie-hogging store. Today at GDC they also announced they've persuaded big games including The Outer Worlds to switch to Epic exclusivity too.
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